


Spartacon III Con Report

by figbash



Series: Nagron [44]
Category: Spartacus Series (TV), Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Spartacus: Vengeance, Spartacus: War of the Damned
Genre: Actors, Character Analysis, Conventions, M/M, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 15:41:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11084700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/figbash/pseuds/figbash
Summary: Extensive notes about Dan & Spartacon III :D





	Spartacon III Con Report

On our way over from the hotel, we ended up driving behind a Southern Maryland shuttle bus. The windows were tinted so we couldn’t see inside, but I had assumed it was fellow con-goers getting transported from their hotel to the stadium. Instead, it ended up being the cast! We realized it was them when we saw the shuttle bus pull up near the Ludus Lounge building, where we had observed the cast bus pull up last year. The cast exited the shuttle bus just as the Nagron Squad exited my car, hehe.

Fewer people than last year meant less time waiting in line. Nagron Suite was in Suite 3, on the ground floor to the right as you enter the main gates. The suite door was right next to Todd’s table, but apparently the original plan was for Dan’s table to be there. Dan was still close by, just past Todd’s table. 

  
Dan photo by Cheryl, Christian photo by Mathilde :D

It was a lot of fun decorating the suite with all the posters we had brought with us, as well as the fun signs of Pana and Blessing’s faces made by [Slashsessed.](https://twitter.com/slashsessed) The signs were a reference to the photos that Blessing and Pana took during the Spartacus cast cruise, holding a sign with Christian's face on it, hehe!

I had made a silly photo edit of the hallway scene, replacing Mira with a goat peeking at Agron and Nasir... My friend made it into a poster, and after we hung it on the suite door, Todd decided to be a smartass and put a little cheeky Caesar graffiti on it, lol...

The suite was an amazing collaboration between everyone :D Having the suite just made everything even more fun and it was a special experience that will stay with me. <3

I was so happy with my selfies this year! I brought a print of my Nagron Funko artwork and was more loose about my poses. Dan looked at the artwork and was like, “Thank you for your creativity!” and I laughed because he sounded like a school teacher, lol

 

**DAN’S SATURDAY MEET & GREET:**  
Like last year, Dan starts off by explaining how the meet and greet works, and says he will answer questions to the best of his ability, encouraging us not to be shy.

 

My friend started it off by telling him that a group of us had watched a dvd of Cryptic in the hotel the previous night.

 

DAN: Oh, I’m so sorry! [laughter]

 

[Various people in the room assure him that they enjoyed it]

 

D: Oh good, no I was really happy doing that. I think Bart Ruspoli, who wrote and directed it, did a fantastic job.

We all wish- and they wish as well- that we had more time to shoot it, because there was a lot of stuff that they had to cut out and the fight sequences and stuff like that were shot super quickly, so it wasn’t as slick as what they needed it to be. And you know, it was done on I think like $50,000 and then we shot it all in 2 weeks and it was just so much fun. 

And I guess one of the things about it was they wrote it like it was a stage play. All one room… And a lot of the actors on it were stage actors. Ed Stoppard, who played the lawyer…

 

Audience: Sexy Stevens? [laughter]

 

D: Yes! Sexy Steve Stevens. His dad is a prolific playwright. He wrote Shakespeare In Love… Yeah, Tom Stoppard. He wrote Rosencrantz and Guildenstern [Are Dead], and other stuff, he’s quite prolific. And his son’s been in a lot of stuff… The Pianist, a lot of stuff. And also Vas [Blackwood], he was in it, was also in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and that was really cool. He was great. It was great to be a part of. Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

 

Q: Will the Cryptic dvd ever be made available in the US?

 

D: I think so. It’s all about distribution, and they got a distributor for the UK and parts of Europe, but they’re shooting a trilogy at the moment. So I’m going to be in the second movie and the third movie when it goes ahead.

 

Q: A Cryptic trilogy?

 

D: No, it’s a completely different movie. [laughs] Everyone’s going- [makes a face] [laughter]  
But the person that was financing it, they’ve had a disagreement with… a falling out with, and so they’re looking for the right new [financier] And one of the deals was that would go in to release this trilogy as well as Cryptic everywhere else. And so that fell through.

But yeah, that’s good, I’m glad you liked it!

 

Q: A scene in Cryptic was very reminiscent of “Angry Agron” (smashing the Roman soldier’s head) from episode 1 of Vengeance. Did they do that just for you, on purpose?

 

D: No, they didn’t do that for me. It’s just how it was written, but because I’ve done that for 3 years straight, that how it just- But it’s funny to have another brother.

 

I asked: I have a question about improvisation on Spartacus… One of my favorite episodes is “Monsters” where all you guys have this bonding where you’re battling each other and you and Crixus are forced to get together and battle Gannicus and Oenomaus. 

There’s this one scene where Agron and Nasir are sitting on the steps, and Pana WALLOPS your thigh, it’s almost like a *pimp slap* you know?? [laughter] And I was wondering if that was improvised or not, and if there are any other improvised scenes you could point out to us?

  
PIMP SLAPPPP! Show him who that thigh belongs to, Nas!!!! :P

 

D: Ohh, I can’t remember exactly that moment, but we were just- cause there were days where you’re just standing. Like we’re standing there the whole time, the entire day you have to stand there. And so you start… being stupid. I would like, push his hair, or he might- you’d try to be funny and make each other laugh.

Improvisation… there wasn’t really that much because Steven wasn’t a huge fan of improvising. And also it’s kinda hard to improvise that kind of a show because of the language. You know, you can’t very well start talking super contemporary or something like that.

I think the improvisation came in physical moments, or character or something like that, rather than writing. I know Rob Tapert, who was the executive producer [also husband of Lucy Lawless], he would put things into scenes, and Steven would get the dailies and he was like, “What the hell is going on?!“ 

One of the big ones Steven would tell me was in the first season… you know the episode where the whole episode’s basically in an orgy? That orgy episode where Spartacus buys the girls for the Romans to get them drunk. Steven would get the dailies and he was like, “What the- The little dude running around with the dildo on his head!” None of this was any of Steven’s idea, and so that’s what Rob would do. He’d put all those kinds of moments in there.

But as far as improvisation in dialog, I personally didn’t do it, there could have been people who did do it but I think mostly it’s kind of hard to utilize. I know Manu said stuff, but half of the stuff was cut out because it didn’t make sense [laughter] He’d just say stuff and people were like, “What the- What’s going on?!” [laughter]

 

Q: Speaking of Manu, both Crixus and Agron trained as Murmillo [gladiator fighting style] but when Agron fights he just sort of plants himself and then kinda uses his power. Crixus sorta jumps around like a toad on crack… and I’m wondering if that was something that you worked out to show the background differences?

 

D: So, obviously when I came into it, Crixus had his style, but I know they wanted myself and Duro to be not very polished, not very well-trained stylistically. We could just be kinda more animalistic. And so that was what they wanted. In regards to the gladiator token, I didn’t really have much of an idea about that. But they did want me to be more animalistic and barbarian-like.

Q: Yeah it kinda went through the whole series… there was this whole stylistic difference when you were fighting.

 

D: Yeah and they also didn’t want us to be like Gannicus or Crixus or Spartacus, who were very good because they were so well-trained. They just wanted us to be like animals.

 

[No one speaks up for the next question]…

 

D: [grinning] Come on people!

 

Q: When you’re acting, do you like the challenge of being very physical? Spartacus was just a major thing to do with the sword fighting and all of the physical aspects of acting. Do you like that to give you a challenge, or do you like the acting that’s not as physical?

 

D: On this show, we loved doing the scenes where we didn’t have to fight, because that stuff’s exhausting. I always love just being able to talk to another character, just talk to another person. That’s kind of “acting” for me. Acting for me is connecting with another person, and so I loved that probably more. 

And also it was a lot easier. It was a lot easier day… for the most part, unless you had to do an emotional scene, then you’re just exhausted. But those days you’d get all your stuff on like, “Oh sweet, I don’t have to have (as Todd was saying in the panel) the TONS of blood put on me.” You’d go into a scene and sit down and chat. You’d do a scene like that and you’re done. 

Whereas in the fight stuff you’re like [makes fight sound effects like a little kid, lol]… You have to set up and do this and this and this and THEN, next week, because of the way they shot it… they shot gladiators one week, Romans the next week. Romans would always have a week off. Whereas gladiators, we were filming all the time because they only got a certain amount of the footage of fighting, and because there were so many of us. Then we’d be shooting on the second unit the second week getting all those fight sequences. So that’s why when we didn’t have to do any of that fight stuff it was like, “Yayyy!”

 

Q: We know you’re doing Heidi… no idea when that’s coming out.

 

D: I don’t know either. There’s a bit of a problem with that one. Basically what happened was… I shot my first part there, I came back home and then I was supposed to go back to India. And all of the sudden they disappeared off the face of the earth. We kinda think they ran out of money or something like that. However, the guy who’s funding it is a billionaire. 

And there was even an article in The Hollywood Reporter about a lot of people who haven’t been paid- like I haven’t been paid- so it’s just one of those things where something happens and I have no idea. The film isn’t finished, and I haven’t finished my stuff, but they could very easily edit the stuff that I’ve already done out of it. But you know unfortunately this will happen. There are SO many projects that go this way. 

[[The article Dan's referring to can be found here.]](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/heidi-queen-mountain-faces-accusations-missing-payments-crew-berlin-2017-974908)

Yeah this guy’s apparently quite notorious in India for that. He’d rather go to court and rack up court fees than pay people. So that’s where that is, at the moment… so it probably will never see the light of day. Yeah, it sucks because it was a lot of fun! And it was a cool little project, I mean it had great people like Bill Nighy and all that sort of stuff. All those people have been paid [laughs] 

But who knows. Who knows what going on. You never know, they could come back and go, “Oh by the way, here you go, we’re ready to kick off again.” But it’s just apparently really different how they work over there. 

My girlfriend had did a Bollywood film one time and she said, “Yeah, I didn’t get paid for ages, and then they go, ‘Oh, here you go.’ ” It’s just a very different way- they don’t have unions, they don’t have anything like that. A lot of it is just mafia money, apparently. It’s interesting. So that’s where that is.

I played a hunter. Heidi goes missing in the hills and I’m a part of the search crew that goes there to go and find her. It was a lot of fun, it was in Spain and it was a beautiful village. Absolutely gorgeous. It was another big makeup job because they had to make me look much older with scars and all that sort of stuff and old school kinda clothes. 

It was a lot of fun, the director was lovely. The director’s married to the billionaire. She was a really talented director, knew exactly what she wanted to do. She’s directed a really good film that went to Sundance, and yeah, they just disappeared. At first they were like, “Oh, we sent the money. We sent the money!” It sucked, but that was like a year ago, so now it’s like, “Oh, that’s right. I did that.”

 

Q: Do you have anything else planned?

 

D: So I did Pacific Rim 2, which comes out later in the year. And as I said, my friends are doing stuff over in London… whenever that kicks off. Yeah, there’s always stuff around.

 

Q: How about the theater part?

 

D: Yeah, so I joined the HERO Theater. I probably won’t start doing stuff with them until maybe later on in the year because Elisa [Bocanegra], the director/owner of HERO Theater, she’s like, “Bear with me, we’ve already got a few projects we’ve got cast, we’re already doing.” And then she got a grant to go away for 6 or 7 months to do some research. So after that she’ll be back, so it won’t be until towards the end of the year, which is great. 

I haven’t done theater for a very long time and when you’re over in LA… You should see half the stuff we go for, acting-wise on TV. It’s terrible. It’s so bad. So creatively, a lot of the time you’re unfulfilled, because auditioning is not very fulfilling. And so that’s why I’m just looking forward to doing theater… “Tread the boards!”

 

I asked: I know Nick is also working with them, but you guys won’t be working together, I assume? [This was before Nick announced that he had parted ways with the theater for… “creative differences”]

 

D: Possibly! She’s got the core cast members, and he’s doing a play at the moment, or he’s in rehearsals at the moment. Yeah, you never know, we might end up in the same play or something like that. Nick’s a huge, *huge* theater fan, loves theater. He’s super excited. You never know, we could be yelling at each other on stage. [laughter]

 

Q: As you have a pacemaker, with the training you had for Spartacus, wasn’t it more exhausting for you? Did you have special training?

 

D: No, I did everything that everyone else did. I was able to do everything. The only thing was obviously, don’t hit it, or don’t get slammed into something really hard, because that could unpluck the wires. But no, I was able to go as hard as I could. I never know, my “hardest I can go” probably is not as hard as somebody else at my age who doesn’t have a heart condition. They could probably go a little harder. But yeah, I was able to go as hard and fast as I could.

 

Q: I watched Indiana Jones-

 

D: Me too!

 

Q: I was wondering what was it in him that inspired you to be an actor?

D: Hmm… Well, the first one I saw was “Temple of Doom”… I saw “Temple of Doom,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and then “Last Crusade.” It didn’t necessarily inspire me to acting, but I just loved it. It’s just such a good bunch of movies. And Harrison Ford is just so cool, and the character is so cool… it’s an adventure kind of thing that kids just absolutely love. It’s so well-made, I love Spielberg. 

It’s just one of those films that- it does inspire you to get into movies because it’s one of those fun, amazing movies you’d love to be a part of. It’s not anything heavy, it’s not anything too stupid, it’s just entertaining. And that’s exactly what we do, is to be entertainers. We’re not changing the world.

 

Q: What is a typical “Dan day” like?

 

D: Some days are so like, “What did I do??” [laughter] Yeah, I’ll get up and if I feel inclined to, I’ll train. I’m not one of those people at the moment who are like, “Ok, I’ve gotta do this and this and this. I’m training!!” I’ll do it when I feel like it. There’s no set time. I’ll get up, maybe use the elliptical machine, or go do some exercises.

 

Q: Do you go to a gym?

 

D: Yeah I do. It just depends on what I’m feeling at the time. And I’ll go run errands, catch up with friends and stuff like that. If I have an audition, I’ll go do that. Or if I have something coming up I’ll just be working on that.

 

Q: Do you watch a lot of tv?

 

D: Not too much.

 

Q: Maybe to see what’s going on with the competition?

 

D: Yes and no… At the moment there’s nothing that’s taken my fancy with tv. I’ve been watching a lot of movies.

 

Q: Do you like to go to the movies so you get the big screen experience?

 

D: Two weeks ago I went to see a movie, no one was in there, it was great! I was just there, sitting by myself… what was I watching… I was watching the movie “Life” with Ryan Reynolds. 

But yeah it was cool, because I used to do that back in Sydney. Every Tuesday I would go to see a movie- because it was “Cheap Tuesday”- and I would have this ritual where I would go into a Woolworth’s, which is like a Trader Joe’s. We’d call it “Wooly’s,” and I’d go in there, get a bag of chips, and I’d go to Wendy’s and get a hotdog and I’d put it in my bag. I’d go buy the ticket and get a soda or something and I’d go in every Tuesday and watch a movie by myself. It was great, I loved it. Terrible food to be eating, but I was 22 or 23, I didn’t care! 

Yeah, so I love going to the movies. Have you heard what they’re possibly doing… when a movie comes out they will stream it to your TV but they will be charging you like 100 bucks. And say for example the new Star Wars came out, they could stream it to your TV if you subscribe and pay $100 and you could watch it as it is in the cinema. Because they’re trying to compete with the fact that there’s just so much to watch. But it’s still nothing compared to going to the movies, for me.

 

I asked: Back to Heidi, I was curious about what era- was it 19th century? I’m trying to picture you in period clothing.

 

D: Um, I don’t know… [laughs]

 

I asked: Could you describe the costumes you were in?

 

D: Yeah, I might even have a photo… No actually, no I don’t… What period was Oliver Twist in? I think it was around that period. Was it the 1800s Heidi was written in? I was kinda dressed like Oliver Twist, Gangs of New York… the chimney sweep kind of hat… Yeah it was great to dress up, I loved it. All the costumes were fantastic and everybody looked amazing. 

And as I was saying the village that we shot it in, in Spain, was just gorgeous. You’d be there in a village, like a fully-functioning village, which did have a bar and a convenience store, but everything else was super old. And then you just look over there and there’s like mountains with snow on them and over there is a waterfall, it’s just absolutely stunning.

But I could kinda tell that things weren’t being run as well as they should have been because the heads of department, the costume, makeup, wardrobe… were very, very frustrated because they wanted to do things but the guy on top was like, “I want this, but I’m only giving you this.” Basically getting them to work with their hands behind their backs. There was a lot of changeover in crew and heads of department. So you could kind of tell things weren’t functioning as well as they should have. 

But I did it because a friend asked me if I could do it, because somebody pulled out at the last minute… It’s unfortunately the game that you play sometimes. As I said before, you’d be surprised how many projects are about to go and then don’t go. A lot of the financing is from big businesses just wanting tax breaks. And then they might get a return on their investment.

But I looked like kind of a chimney sweep. Yellow teeth and a scar… It was a lot of fun, it was really cool. And they just wanted me to play it like Agron, kinda grumpy. Grumpy Hunter. [laughter]

 

I asked: I guess you can’t post any photos to social media or anything, can you?

 

D: You know what, I probably could as a big “Fuck You” because I’m like, “You didn’t pay me… so this is what I did.” You know? Who knows when it’s coming out. But the thing is, if I did that, then you get people excited about something. And also, you never know, I could put something like that out there and then they want you back… But it’s been a year. He’s got so many court cases against him. And most of the crew were the ones who weren’t paid.

I was ok with going and doing it because it was friends of mine, and they’re like, “Could you please come and do this?” I didn’t think anything of it, and neither did they. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. 

And we’ve left the credit up there on IMDB because when you go for other jobs they’re like, “Oh yeah, he’s done this, he’s worked with them” and that’s how the casting people- I’ve had friends who, casting is like, “We don’t think they’ll be right. We’re not really interested.” They’re not this or they’re not that. And then the agent’s like, “Well we just did this” “Oh really?! Oh no, yes. Come on in!” That is what it’s like.

You’d be surprised the utter garbage that people have to go through. It’s insaaaane.

 

Q: Have you heard about the web series “Con Man”? That is so much fun, have you seen it at all?

 

D: I haven’t seen it, but I went for the role that Liam went for. The “Lost Hemsworth Brother.” [laughter] Once again, Liam’s good friends with Nathan Fillion. So he was like, “You work with your friends.” I haven’t seen it, but it would’ve been fun to do.

 

Q: Is there going to be a season 2 of Travel Boobs?

 

D: I hope so. I think Jaime started writing some stuff here and there but she was working on Pacific Rim as well, and Steven’s super busy… Yeah it’s just a matter of- if she gets something, then she’d be able to get super-easy money. Or say for example, myself, if I get into another show-

 

Audience: That’s what we’re hoping to see.

 

D: Yeah, me too! [laughter] I’d be more than happy to say, “Let’s do this again.” Because we wanted to do something to find out what those two could get up to again. We’ve chatted about that. But it’s time-consuming for her because it’s all her own money, you don’t get anything in return… They try and sell it but it’s a hard industry to be a part of, regardless. You keep plugging away, because that’s all you can do. That’s when you get the good stuff.

 

Afterwards, Dan always gives everyone a hug as they leave. I gave him a print of my colorized sketch of him & Teddy. Dan laughed and said, "Heyyy! Teddy!!"

 

**AFTER PARTY:**  
It was much less crowded this time, which was a relief. Because I was driving I only got one drink early in the night, but bar service seemed organized and pretty efficient. Another big change from last year was that the front of the room had a roped-off VIP area for the cast.

Ron Jeremy sat up there like a creepy Roman emperor and would periodically walk a circuit of the room like the Ghost of Pornography Past :P When the cast arrived, they chose mostly to hang out in the crowd rather than sit on the VIP stage. The music was again not the best (a bunch of somewhat dated songs), but a little better than last year. We left some time before midnight so we missed the epic rap duet of “Look At Me Now” between Todd and Christian, but there’s a video of it on the [Spartacon FB page.](https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpartyCon/permalink/1903557623252373/)

 

**SPARTACUS TRIVIA PANEL (hosted by Dan):**  


  
Photo on the left by me. I used Hester's photo to make my "Hot For Teacher" album cover on the right, ROFL

My friend came up with this panel and put a huge amount of work into making all sorts of questions about extremely obscure Spartacus knowledge, with the help of some fellow hardcore fans. She asked me to film the panel so I wasn’t able to participate, but I think I would have gotten -10 points anyway, lol.

This panel was TONS of fun! I loved seeing Dan take center stage and be goofy by himself, rather than on a group panel. His silly little asides were a real treat, and gave me a better sense of his personality.

My video of the full panel:  
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpartyCon/permalink/1905038876437581>

The “Dan Being Stupid” edit:  
<https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpartyCon/permalink/1909994289275373>

 

Later in the day, we basically had a group selfie orgy with Dan in front of the door to Nagron Suite. We all paid for a selfie, then gathered together and took a zillion photos, passing each other's phones to the handler, and we ended up with a ton. It was GREAT! Afterwards, Dan was giving out hugs and a few of us walked back into the suite (including me) but Dan followed us and insisted on giving hugs to us too. I was really touched by that! 

Needless to say, I had even more fun at Spartacon III than I did last year. It was AWESOME having our Nagron Suite, and finally meeting some international friends that were able to make the trip this year. We were all sad that Pana couldn't make it, but the suite sent him a video that he seemed to enjoy! :D

**Author's Note:**

> It's unfortunate that Dan couldn't remember that thigh slap in "Monsters" but I know it was years ago at this point. I enjoyed Dan's tidbit about playing with Pana's hair tho, hehe #^_^#
> 
> [You can find additional photos from Spartacon III on my IG.](https://www.instagram.com/frabjous_figbash/)
> 
>  
> 
> I'm adding this interesting anecdote from my friends Birgitta and Lucrezia, who went to the Rebels Spartacus IV convention in Paris...
> 
>  
> 
> **Q: What is the fondest memory you have with Pana and do you still keep in touch with him?**
> 
>  
> 
> Dan: Yeah, we still keep in touch but we don’t chat that much because he’s very busy working in New Zealand. [A couple of girls were laughing and told Dan that they didn’t believe Pana is so busy working because he’s posting a lot on Snapchat and Instagram] Well I think he is, he probably just doesn’t talk to me. [laughs]
> 
> The fondest memory... [laughs] Okay, so, we’re doing our sex scene and the director is gay and he directed a lot of episodes on “Queer as Folk”. We’re doing the scenes and obviously, I’m behind Pana and Pana, during one of the breaks, went to the director and was like, “When do I get a turn?” and the director’s like, “Look Pana, in the gay community, there’s tops and bottoms and unfortunately, you are a bottom.” and Pana got really disappointed and sad and I was like, “Okay, how about this, Pana? Instead of the next shot, when you have to go down on me, I will go down on you” and he was like, “Oh alright.”
> 
> So that was the kind of fun and silly conversations you had during these scenes because it takes a long time. We probably shot that scene for a couple of hours. On TV, it looks sexy but when you shoot it, it’s not. It was early in the morning, freezing cold, in the middle of winter when we were shooting it and those kinds of things are probably the funniest memories. I think he was 20-21 at the time so he was still like a baby basically. I just thought that was a funny situation.
> 
> The story with Katrina was fun too. [Referring to the Nagron scene in "Balance" where Katrina purposely missed her cue so Dan & Pana would make out longer, hehehe.]


End file.
